Knowledge Interchange Format

Version 3.0

Reference Manual

by

Michael R. Genesereth

Richard E. Fikes

in collaboration with

This manual is the ``living document'' of the Interlingua Working Group of
the DARPA Knowledge Sharing Effort. As such, it represents work in progress
toward a proposal for a standard knowledge interchange format.

Computer Science Department
Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305
Abstract: Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF) is a computer-oriented
language for the interchange of knowledge among disparate programs. It has
declarative semantics (i.e. the meaning of expressions in the representation can be understood without appeal to an interpreter for manipulating those
expressions); it is logically comprehensive (i.e. it provides for the
expression of arbitrary sentences in the first-order predicate calculus); it
provides for the representation of knowledge about the representation of
knowledge; it provides for the representation of nonmonotonic reasoning rules; and it provides for the definition of objects, functions, and relations.